The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1887-09-14
Innocent Condemned.

We cannot help being aroused to the
highest sentiment of pity and compassion,
when we hear of one who is innocent, be-
ing condemned. 1t makes us shudder to
think of such an event. which is the very
picture of horror and shame. Still, it is a
common thing to hear one say that he is
innocent of the charge he is doing servi-
tude for. Although he may have had a
fair and impartial trial; the evidence may
have been positive or circumstantial; the
witnesses prejudiced or just. The jury
has received the evidence, and have found
him guilty, and the judge has sentenced
him; innocent or not. he must go among
the guilty and condemned.
There are two ways of being accused and
condemned innocent. One is through preju-
dice and perjury. and the other is through
bad company. Bad company condemns
many all innocent person. | dare
say all the young men that are in prisons
and jails to-day innocent, are the fruit of
bad company. Bad company is the source
and esscence of moral corruption. 1t has
many busy tributary and inlet. From
gilded saloon comes its maddenng roar.
with the jingle of wine glasses, and the
maniac's laugh; from the gambling den flows
the chief horror of youthful passions.
How delightful is a bath in its destructive
wrath; how quick he becomes enamored
with the rifle of cards, the rattle of
poker chips and dice. Gambling is the
chief companion of bad company. 1t
makes the youth steal money from his par
ents to throw into it's illicit sinkhole. 1t is
the very door we enter to be thieves and
drunkarls. We seldom hear of young
man stealing to get drunk, but nearly all
the forgeries and embeZzlements that are
committed by young men are caused from
gambling.
We have here a young man of seemingly
good habits who makes an excellent appear
ance in socitey. He may be clerk or a
mechanic, but he has one awful habit his
mother or friends know not of. He is
mingling with bad associates; he has thrown
himself at the feet of this demon, King
Gamble Month after month he sacrifices
the fruits of his daily toll to his unquenched
and voracious appetite; by and by it not
only rObs him of his money, but of his en-
ployment and his name, and leaves him
friendless, in rags, want and destitutiOn,
and in the moment of that awful crisis of
life the good and bad wrestle within him
for existence. 1t is an awful struggle there
on the brink of the precipice. All! but the
bad wins, and down he falls into that dread
full abyss OF shame and degradation, and
in that dark moment of hopeless faith, his
heart turns to thievery and rapacity. He
either FORCES or steals. And when we next
hear Of him, he will either be in the prison
cell or the drunkard's hovel.
Reader, write from personal
experience. 1 have been up the
dark alleys of life. and have
seen man in his lowest state of woe and
shame; have seen life on many sides; l
cause. The cause is that we forget the les
son of our own mothers too soon. You re-
member when she warned you of bad COM
pany, for every true and devoted mother
prOclams it the enemy of home. the ira
ducer of childhood, and the destroyer Of
virtue.
Inow, through all my sorrow and degra-
datiOn. proclaim to all the sons and daugh-
ters of earth who wish to make life a sue
cess to beware of bad company and es-
chew it as they would snake, and you will
never bring sorrow to your aged mothers.
or be reprOach to the honor OF your home,
but will be happy with virtue. pure in NOR
ais, and will never be an ''InnOcent Con-
demned." SAM JONES.
Sept Z, 1887.